Want a great djembe ‘Tone’ sound? It’s all about the way you lift your hand
Want a great djembe ‘Tone’ sound? It’s all about the way you lift your hand
If you have just started learning the African djembe, you may be feeling frustrated with the sound you’re creating on the side of the drum. Perhaps you are wondering why it is that whenever you attempt to make the tone, you get a flat dead muted note. If you’re experiencing this frustration, try focusing more on the way you lift your hand, than the way it falls on the drum. Any unnecessary movement in the joints, fingers and wrist as you lift your hand will affect the quality of your tone.
Raising your hand to strike the drum, the tips of your fingers need to be the first thing that lifts up with the rest of the hand, wrist and arm following behind. Imagine you’re a string puppet and there is a cord attached to the very tips of your fingers. As the imaginary cord lifts, your fingers come up first and everything else follows. Doing this sets you up to strike the ‘tone spot’ on the djembe with the right angle so fingers bounce off easily. As your hand and fingers come back down for the strike, your fingers will be slightly raised at a 30 degree angle and land gracefully on the tone spot of the drum. If your fingers are relaxed and not tense (more on finger relaxation soon), they will bounce off the drum creating a beautiful resonance for your tone. But the point is not to think about the way your hand and fingers drop – it is the way you lift which matters.
You can see a djembe lesson video here:
The difference between a ‘good lift’ and a ‘bad lift’ can be very subtle. It is really about which part of the hand/arm lifts first. Here are a couple of examples of what can go wrong as you lift your hand to play:
1. Dropped wrist technique
As you raise your hand to strike a tone, your wrist might lift up first with your hand hanging on behind. Because your hand has been in this hanging position, your fingers will be projected forward as they fall to the drum, striking the ‘tone spot’ at the wrong angle. Instead of the fingers landing in a flat position, the projected angle of the fingers will absorb the bounce and press into the skin giving you a dull closed note without any resonance.
There is alternative outcome to this scenario with the ‘dropped’ wrist. When you raise your ‘hanging hand’ to the optimum height, you may flick the wrist back so that the fingers don’t project forward as they come down. The problem with this is technique is it creates too much movement between the arm and the hand as you play. Any unnecessary movement in the hand will sap your energy, hindering your ability to play with control and maintain stamina when playing for prolonged periods. However, the main issue is that this flick of the wrist at the top will potentially create a ‘slap’ sound instead of a tone – not a good ‘slap’ but a bad slap without any control or subtlety.
2. Dropped finger technique
This technique is far subtler than the wrist one – and hence harder to detect and correct. In this scenario the wrist is fine. It is not interfering as the you lift and in general the hand is lifting first. But there is just the slightest drop in the fingers as the hand lifts up. You may barley notice it, but it can make all the difference. Usually in this scenario the knuckles are lifting first – either the fore knuckles or the front ones. In the same way as the wrist technique (but this time less acute) the fingers project forward and absorb the bounce to give you the same flat sound without tone resonance.
How to improve your lift movement
If you think you might have fallen in to one of these habits and you are getting frustrated with your sound, here is a fun way to apply a nice ‘fingertip lift’ technique. Rest your hands on the side of the drum with your fingertips in contact with the ‘tone’ spot of the drum. If you don’t know where this is, check out our blog on hand positioning). Then lift the fingers up (really make sure your fingers up first) and do a ‘hiya’ with your hand. The hand just lifts up and come sown again. If you are with a group, you can all get really silly and start doing ‘hiya’ gestures with each other. Invariably this hand sign involves the fingers lifting up first so this gesture will trick your hand into applying the lift of the finger tips. With a little practise, this gesture will form a new habit in your hand movement which over time you will unconsciously apply to your tone technique.
I understand there is a counter argument to this technique that the arm and hand should remain as one unit and be straight. With the fingertips lifting first, the hand and the arm will not necessarily be straight and there will be some movement in the wrist. However, I don’t think there is really any problem in there being some wrist movement when djembe playing – what is important is the way it moves. With this ‘fingers first’ technique your wrist will be involved with lifting the hand up but will not interfere in a way that detriments your technique.
The other thing to recognise is the movement in tone and slap becomes far subtler as your technique improves. This means that this application of hand and arm technique may be highly pronounced when you first start to practise but will be less exaggerated over time.
I hope this blog helps you on your journey in mastering the djembe tone sound and I hope the exercise proves useful. At the very least – it’s nice to just say ‘Hiya!’
Receive further djembe tuition videos on our Youtube channel. We have a great series of video called Djembe for absolute Beginners:
Drum Roll for 2023!
Drum Roll for 2023!
Dear friends, happy new year and welcome to 2023.
So how was 2022 for you? Did you manage to have fun? Was it a challenging year? Were you feeling the heat in the summer? Were you shivering in December? 2022 really was something of a roller coaster wasn’t it!
1. Lowering our Carbon Impact
In May this year we acquired our new Electric Van and so now we can travel to deliver your event with zero emissions and a low carbon impact.
2. Large Workshops
We delivered some really big workshops in June – Two Samba workshops each for over 200 people. The sound of a group this size playing was breath-taking!
3. Restrictions were Lifted
Schools, Corporate and Community clients finally opened up for group gatherings following two years of covid restrictions – our diary got super busy in the summer!
4. Festivals were back!
We had a great time at the Underneath the Stars Folk festival this year, delivering a big Boomwhacker Percussion workshop for the punters!
5. Group Drumming Workshops for Children
In November we worked with seven different Rotherham schools as part of a multi booking event for Wickersley Academy Trust. Hundreds of children discovered the joy of group drumming through our African Music Experience workshop!
The Challenges of 2022 and Our Remedy for 2023
It all started well. Lockdown began to ease and pretty soon the simple process of people meeting up to socialise no longer felt like a complete palaver.
Suddenly, we could hear each other when we talked as our voices were no longer muffled under a mask; we didn’t have to queue so much, and no longer did we have to relentlessly complete covid disclaimer forms each time we entered a building or participated in an event.
But as the year went on problems developed in the world that began to affect us all. As the weather got super-hot, 2022 broke the records as the hottest year ever and we were reminded that climate change never went away during covid and remains the biggest threat to humanity and life on earth.
But if that wasn’t worrying enough, someone’s reckless decisions created a crisis in Eastern Europe sending tremors all over the globe.
Yes, I know this is a rather depressing opening to a New Year blog. But given the challenges of 2022, it feels appropriate to recognise the fear and uncertainty 2023 brings.
As someone whose profession is engaged in using music to enhance mental health and wellbeing, it feels important to consider such feelings and how they can be processed to feel positive and strong for the coming year.
While the big problems in the world dominate news headlines, it is vital to recognise the need to switch off the noise; doom, and gloom of the media and think about what we can do with the time given to us to improve our wellbeing and the wellbeing of those closest to us.
I am not a life coach nor a therapist, but I found something that improved my life nearly 30 years ago. It continues to really make a positive difference to my quality of life today – drumming!
I have been drumming since the age of 13. Apart from playing West African and Brazilian drums and percussion, I am forever tapping on randoms surfaces and objects – window sills, cereal boxes, steering wheels, tin cans, cd cases, paper, plastic bags, match boxes.
And if nothing is to hand, I will be tapping on my legs or stamping my feet. Yes, it drives my loved ones mad, but they know I am a better person for it.
But the real magic of drumming is massively amplified by drumming in a group with others. It is such an exhilarating feeling for everyone when they can share the joy of music and rhythm through something as accessible and inclusive as a drum!
Why not make 2023 be the year you connect with other people around you to make your world and community a better happier place.
We have been connecting people through music for over 20 years. It works!
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